The Travel category has continually increased in popularity over the past few weeks, with the majority of this increase coming directly from location based applications.  There were almost 100 new applications in Travel this week and nearly 200 new location apps overall.

Potholes not only uses location to reveal all those pesky dips in the road that wreak havoc on your car, but it also reports them so repair crews know where to find them so that they can be fixed.  The application sends longitude and latitude information anonymously and also has the option to include a photo of the pothole and a brief description.  It also shows all potholes within seven miles of current location.

Sooshi is a brand new social networking tool that allows the user to stay up-to-date with friends, contacts, and those close by.  It is slightly different than other social networking applications that use location because it features an option to select the distance you can be seen or that you want to see. Instant messages can be broadcast within a chosen distance and the app can be directly linked to Twitter, Flicker, Face book, LinkedIn, Tumbler and Del.icio.us sites.

MeetWays helps people find a halfway point between two locations.  If meeting up with far away friends, business clients or organizing a Craigslist purchase meet-up point, MeetWays will find the location exactly in the middle and give listings of local nearby businesses.  Furthermore, there is an option to enter type of interest to streamline the search, favorite searches can be saved, and the application currently works in more than 25 countries.

By Courtney Teeling